Establishing a new medical school: A contemporary approach to personalizing medical education

Abstract

Objective: To borrow a public health concept, there has been a global outbreak, perhaps a pandemic, of new medical schools during the last 20 years, resulting in a diverse range of programs in many different contexts. The question posed was: how should the task of establishing a new medical program be approached in 2018?

Methods: Based on involvement with several new medical programs, this paper presents a highly idealistic commentary on what a new medical program might look like. The paper adopts the organizational structure of the World Federation of Medical Education Basic Medical Education standards as a scaffold, because accreditation both locally and globally is intended.

Results: The program design reflects both progress in learning technology and the challenges faced in a changing world, where disruption appears inevitable, and innovation may be necessary to produce the medical graduates needed to improve the health status of an expanding, ageing and ailing global population.

Conclusion: The program model described represents a combination of educational design, emerging technology and a focus on future health care needs.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflict of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Hays

Richard Hays, MBBS, PhD, MD, FRACGP, FRCGP, PFHEA, FAMEE, FAoME, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland Australia, and University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, has been involved in establishing several new medical programs and also in accrediting both new and established medical programs.